LONDON – Rupert Murdoch told British authorities that he was selling ALL his media properties – including Fox News.

LONDON – Rupert Murdoch told British authorities that he was selling ALL his media properties – including Fox News.

Sitting before a panel of British MPs, Rupert Murdoch told the world that he is selling all his media properties and “getting out of the media business.” The phone-hacking scandal has brought down one of the biggest media moguls in history.

Prior to today, the phone hacking scandal caused the closure of one of the country’s most famous newspapers, prompted 10 arrests so far and led to calls for the resignation of the Prime Minister reaches a critical juncture today with a moment of high drama to rival anything that the British media has produced before, either in real life or fiction.

The founder and the appointed heir to the world’s most famous media empire, Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch, took center stage in the next act of the hacking saga.

Rupert and James testified before a panel of MPs and face questions that the company over which they preside was involved in phone hacking on an “industrial scale”, made illegal payments to police officers and sought to corrupt the democratic process by “owning” politicians. In their answers, for which they have been carefully drilled by a team of lawyers and media trainers, the pair will attempt to rescue a tarnished reputation and distance themselves from serious criminal charges.

Murdoch told the MPs – and they world – that he plans on going into “the environmental business” and will join Bill Gates in working to spread his wealth to charities around the globe.